Improvement in feeding mechanisms for button-hole sewing-machines



WILLIAM CHICKEN Improvement in Feeding Mechanism for Button-Hole Sewing Machines.

N0 124,252, I Patented March 5, i872.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIGE.

WILLIAM CHICKEN, OF CHELSEA, ASSIGNOR TO AMOS L \VOOD, TRUSTEE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN FEEDING MECHANISMS FOR BUTTON-HOLE SEWING-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 124,232, dated March 5, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM CHICKEN, of Chelsea, in the county of Sufi'olk and State of lVI-assa-chusetts, have invented an Improved Friction-Feed Mechanism for Button-Hole Machines, &c; and 1 do hereby declare that the iollowing, taken in connection with the drawing which accompanies and forms part of this specification, is a description of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

United States Letters Patent No. 7 2,7 94, dated January 7, 1808, were granted to me for an improvement in eti'eetin g the feed movement of the cloth-clamp wheel or disk, in what are known as Union Button-Hole Machines. In the earlier machines this disk receives its rotation from a pawl acting on ratchet-teeth cut in the edge of the disk, the fault of this being that the disk can only be moved in rotation at each intermission, an amount of an- .gle which is determined by the action of the pawl on one, two, or more teeth, there being no way in which the movements of the disk can be made through the space represented by any fraction of one of the ratchet-teeth; and the object of the invention, shown in said patent No. 72,794, was to remedy the defect mentioned by providing a means by which the movements of the disk may be made whatever is desired, instead of being confined to fixed divisions of a circle, like those of ratchetteeth.

The primary object of my present invention is the same as was the object of the invention shown in said patent, the desired result being accomplished, however, by a more direct application of the feed mechanism to the rotating clamp-disk.

United States Letters Patent No. 107,001, dated September 6, 1870, were also granted to me, one part of the invention shown in said patent relating to a means for automatically effecting the change in the feed movement for the eye-part and slit-part of the button-hole, respectively; and mypresent invention embraces an improved method of effecting the same result, as also an improvement in the construction of the friction-feed devices.

My invention consists, primarily, in making the clamp dislr with provision for direct application thereto of the griping devices of a friction-feed mechanism, and combining therewith the mechanism for operating the frictionfeed pawls, said mechanism and the disk, preferably, having directly connecting with them the devices by which change of feed movement for the eye and slit is automatically effected.

The drawing represents the mechanism or part of the machine embodying my invention. a denotes the rotary clamp-disk, having cut in its upper surface the cam-grooye b, thatimparts requisite movements to the cloth-clamp, and in its opposite surface a cam-groove, c, that controls the devices for producing the automatic change of the stitch for the eye and slit. In the under surface of the disk 1 also cut or form a guide-slot, d,for receiving the friction-pawls,this slot being made wide enough to receive two pawls or pawl-wedges, e f, to one of which the actuating lever g is pivoted, as seen at h, while to the other the short arm of the lever is pivoted, as seen at i. The outer edges of the respective pawls are made circular, to correspond to the curves of the op-- posite sides of the circular slot d, while the inner edges of the pawls abut and are made straight, each pawl being a wedge, with one circular or curved side, and one straight side. The long arm of the lever g is pivoted toa lever, it, one arm of which is connected, by a link, 1,,to a lever, m, fulcrumed at a, and having reciprocating movement imparted to it by a cam, 0, into which a pin projects from the lever, the other arm of said lever 70 having a pin, 0, contact/of which with the edge of the pawl-lever determines the movement or commencement of movement of the pawl-lever. The rear end of the pawl-lever has two faces, 9 1", one of which is brought into contact, at proper times, with a stop, 8, and the other, at proper times, into contact with a stop, t. The stop if is fixed to an arm, 21, attached toor connected with one arm of a lever, o, whose other arm has a pin, w, extending into the camgroove 0 of the clamp-disk a, the cam-groove being composed of two parts, each concentric with the center of motion of the disk, but eccentric with the other, and the two being connected as shown in said patents 72,974 and 107,001. When the pin is in the part 2 of the cam-groove c the end of the arm it stands in the position seen at B, in the path of back movement of the face a" of the lever, the stitches being then formed along the slit of the button-hole; but when the part 00 of the cam-groove reaches the pin to the arm tis thrown out of the path of movement of the face 1, and the pawl-lever is then thrown further back at each back movement, or until the face q comes against the stop .9. thereby insuring a longer feed movement of the disk, the forward or feed movement of the pawl-lever being always to a fixed point, but such movement commencing from a point determined by the extent of back movement of said lever, the lever moving back until arrested either by the stop 8 or the stop 13, and its length of forward movement being greater or less, in accordance with the particular stop which arrests it. The length of either the eye-stitch or the slit-stitch is adjustably regulated by making each stops it adjustable in position, as will be readily understood. \Vhen the link Zis moved forward it causes the lever 70 to press the long arm of the pawl-lever outwardly, thereby cansin g the arm 2 to drive the pawl-wedge f against the pawl-wedge a, causing the outer edge of each to bind against the adjacent wall or edge of the pawl-groove, the forward movement of the pawllever then effecting the feed movement of the clamp disk. When the pawl-lever starts it first loosens the grip of thepawl-wedgefupon the pawl-wedge g, and then drawsback both pawls without their imparting movement to the clamp-disk, the back-movement of the pawl: lever being effected by the movement of the lin k l and lever k, (actuated from the cam,) and the action of a. spring, a upon a pin, b projecting from the pawl-wedge. The movement of the link I beingfixed or constant,'while the back movement of the pawl-lever is determined by the position of the stops 8 2, and the particular one of them against which the pawl-lever is arrested, provision is made for the lost motion by means ofthelever 7:,which movesthelever g, l

and swings with respectthereto, thepinp striking the lever, when it and the pawl-lever will move forward together or as one. To increase the friction of the pawl-levers upon the clampdisk the walls of the groove are inclined, as seen at G, the width of the grooveincreasing from its mouth, and the edges of the pawlwedges are similarly beveled, as'seen at (J, so that, as the pawl-wedges are torcedagainst said walls, their curved edges act as wedges laterally, and the upper broad surfaces are also forced against the broad surface of the groove. By making the disk itself with the friction-pawl receiving-groove, and applying the friction-pa-wls and the eye and slit-stitch regulating mechanism directly to the disk, I dispense with the necessity of employing the intermediate-gear mechanism shown in my atoresaid patents, and obtain all the advantages obtained by the gear-and-friction pawl mechanism shown in said patents.

I claim 1. The clamp-disk a, formed with the slot (1, for receiving the friction-pawl wedges, and having the friction-pawl mechanism, and the mechanism for automatically, regulating the change of stitch for the eye and slit, relatively arranged, and operating substantially as shown and described.

2. The friction pawls or pawl-wedges e f, each made with one curved edge to fit the circular wall of the groove d, and with an in nor straight edge, the two inner edges sliding upon each other, substantially as shown and described.

3. The friction-pawl groove 0, made with the inclined edges or walls, and the pawls 0], made with correspondiugly-inclined edges tit ting thereinto, substantially as shown and described.

Executed this llth day of December, A. D.

WM. CHICKEN. Witnesses:

FRANCIS GOULD, M. W. FROTI-IINGHAM. 

